Legacy: Finding Neverland
by Lady Dawson
Chapter Three: The Island Dying
Susan sighed as she sat at the table while Peter Pan was playing on his pipes absently. "How long is it going to take me to convince you that I am not Wendy?" she wanted to know. Peter grinned cockily at her and continued to play on his flute. "Great." Standing up, Susan walked over to the other side of the room, annoyed with the kid that had practically abducted her off of where she'd landed on this island.
After she had come face-to-face with Peter, he'd picked her up and flew away with her. Unable to break free without falling hundreds of feet and presumably to her death, Susan had to submit to the indignity of being carried in the air over the island.
"You grew up."
Susan jumped, startled, and looked towards Peter. He was looking at her in a forlorn way. "You grew up, Wendy," he told her. "You weren't supposed to grow up. You promise you wouldn't."
"I'm not Wendy," Susan said softly, though she was almost feeling sorry for the boy. She had loved the story of Peter Pan and Wendy ever since she was a little girl and had always thought that it might very well be real, considering how many things were real that other people thought weren't.
"You look like her," Peter replied as he placed the pipes to his lips again and began to play. "Just older."
"It's been quite a long time since you brought Wendy to Neverland, Peter," Susan told him, unable to think of anything else to say. "At least a hundred years or more." Wendy Darling, most likely, was dead by now. Dead and forgotten, except by those who thought she was a fairy tale.
Peter looked up as she said that and considered her carefully. "No," he replied, shaking his head vigorously, trying to deny this fact. "It hasn't. You were here only a few months ago, Wendy. Why do you keep trying to deny the fact? Are we playing some kind of game?"
"This isn't a game!" Susan exclaimed. "My name is Susan Dawson and I'm from the year 2024. Where I come from, your and Wendy's story is legend. They've got books about it, made plays, movies—"
"Movies?" Peter asked, glancing at her quickly. "What's 'movies'?" Susan sighed; this was getting old really fast. She had to find her way out of here and find the others before something happened to them.
"Movies are like plays, but different," she told him, looking away. "Look, Peter, I don't have time for this; I've got to find my friends. They're probably somewhere out there looking for me."
"The boys are on it," Peter replied simply. "Don't worry about it, nothing's going to happen to them, Wendy." Susan's exasperation with him was rising and she gritted her teeth to stop from snapping. "What's the worst that can happen, anyway?"
"Let's not go there," Susan muttered under her breath. "Okay, let's pretend for a minute that we're actually getting along. Why did you bring me here? What am I doing here?"
"To help me save Neverland, of course," Peter said, looking at her as though this question surprised him. "Didn't you notice, Wendy? The island's dying." For once, his addressing her as Wendy wasn't the first thing that she noticed; his words caught her attention and she frowned slightly, returning her thoughts to when she had first arrived.
Now that she thought about, she did remember the island seeming a bit . . . faded. The trees weren't as green as they should be and the bark was wilted. All of the flowers seemed to have the life sucked out of them. Even the sky was eerie and dark. Something was very wrong here.
Just as she was about to ask Peter what the problem was, Susan heard the door slam open and chattering emerged. Whirling around, Susan let out a gasp of shock as she saw Chris, Wyatt, and Brooke being hauled into the hideaway, ropes binding them.
"Oh, good gods!" Susan exclaimed, horrified. "What are you doing? Let them go!"
"But they're grown ups!" one of the Lost Boys whined. Susan threw a disgusted look towards Peter, who looked completely indifferent at the new arrivals, as she hurried forward.
"Are you guys okay?" she asked, yanking a knife from one of the boys and slicing through the ropes. Chris nodded, holding her tightly as he looked towards their surroundings. "All right, good. I take it that one of you is responsible for our being here?"
Brooke and Chris both pointed towards Wyatt, who winced slightly before raising his hand. "Yeah, sorry," Wyatt told her, forcing a smile at her. "I didn't exactly mean to do this. Just trying out a spell that was supposed to . . . help us find out Connelly's next move."
"Oh," Susan said, glancing towards Chris, who met her gaze. Things had changed ever since she'd realised that Peter Connelly was her father; she wasn't sure if she even wanted to kill him or not. One thing was certain, if he did try and hurt her brother, then she wouldn't hesitate to kill him. "Okay, well, if that's true, then maybe he's the reason why something's been happening here."
"Wherever 'here' is," Brooke said and Susan looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Okay, I take it that you know?" Susan sighed, rolling her eyes at her best friend. "Well, where are we?"
"Neverland," Susan answered. The response was instantaneous. Chris's eyes were bulging as she said that. Wyatt's mouth actually dropped open. Brooke stared at her in a mixture of astonishment and disbelief. "I'm not joking, guys, we're actually standing on the island."
"If we're in Neverland, then that would mean . . ." Wyatt's eyes flew over to where Peter was sitting. Now that the attention was back on him, Peter flew up over the Lost Boys, landing on the table.
"Peter Pan, at your service, friends of Wendy," he replied with a bow. Susan heaved a sigh and looked towards her friends.
"Will you please tell him that I am not Wendy?" she said, her aggravation starting to show in her voice. Chris was hiding a smile, something that she made a mental note to smack him for later, and looked towards Peter, his green eyes twinkling with amusement.
"She's not Wendy," Chris told Peter. Wyatt still looked stunned, but Brooke took charge of the problem.
"Okay, so what do you think the problem is?" she asked. "I noticed that the island was all sort of . . . dried up while we were out there."
"Lack of belief," Peter said glumly. Susan stared at him before glancing towards the others, who looked completely bewildered as well. "The island's dying. Soon, there'll be nothing left and Neverland will exist no more. We've got to save it before it's destroyed."
"Why would somebody want to destroy an island?" Wyatt asked, shaking his head as though trying to clear it. "Doesn't make any sense. I mean, I know that this isn't an ordinary island, but still . . . it's just an island."
"It's hardly 'just an island', Wyatt," Susan countered, turning to him. Everyone looked at her. "Neverland is an enchanted island, one that was built on children's dreams. If Neverland is being destroyed, then that means that children's dreams are being destroyed. And if that's true, then children no longer have the ability to dream. So by destroying children's dreams, who are the future, then nobody will be able to live. People will go through life living empty, heartless, emotionless lives. And to be quite honest, that's not something that I'm gonna look forward to."
Brooke sucked in her breath as she considered this. "So, what do you think that it is?" she asked as she looked at her best friend. "A demon sucking dreams from children?"
"Demon?" Peter echoed, bewildered, and Susan sighed, running her hands through her hair.
"I don't know," she admitted, crossing her hands over her chest as she surveyed the guys. "How would a demon even get here in the first place? I mean, it's not so easy to get here, Brooke. Just to get to Neverland, that would take someone with enormous magical power—" She stopped talking as the other three exchanged glances. "Oh, boy."
"Connelly," Chris muttered as Peter finally gave up getting attention from them and stalked over to the table, looking annoyed. "Jeez, doesn't that guy ever get tired of almost killing us? What is this, the third time this week?" Brooke chuckled and Susan made a small smile.
"Fourth," she replied weakly as she shook her head. "Okay, troops, we need to figure this out fast, because I was actually in the middle of work when you summoned me away from there. And besides, we need to—" Suddenly, her mind flashed to her brother and she froze. "Oh, gods. Wy, you don't happen to know who you actually summoned here, do you?"
"Uh . . . no, why?" Wyatt looked alarmed as he looked at her and Susan bit her lip, casting a quick glance at Chris. Her boyfriend met her gaze and understood the cause of her worry immediately.
"You don't think that Bobby's here, do you?" he asked. Before any of them could speak, the door to the hideaway was blasted apart and Susan whirled around to find none other than the notorious pirate, Captain James Hook.
And standing right next to him, looking extremely pleased, was a certain phoenix assassin. "Oh, great," Susan muttered, rolling her eyes. "It's you."
--
Brandon groaned as he orbed into his charge's apartment to find her nowhere in sight. "Where is that girl now?" he muttered as he opened the door to her bedroom, finding it deserted. Brooke's room, too, was empty when he looked. Closing his eyes, he tried to sense for either of them, but he couldn't find a trace of either of the girls. That scared him, because he had never been unable to sense Susan before.
Tapping his foot impatiently, he glared up at the Elders. "I don't suppose you guys know anything that you'd be willing to share, would you?" he inquired and only got an annoyed jingling in his head in answer. Wincing, he shook his head. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm starting to think that Susan's got the right idea about you guys."
Cloaking himself from Their ever watchful eye, Brandon orbed out to the Connelly Manor, keeping a close watch out as he looked around, watching for any demons that might shimmer in from behind him. Or else Peter Connelly, which was decidedly worse.
Thankfully, however, no one snuck up behind him and Brandon reached the top level of the manor without detection. He turned down the hall and spotted the door that was marked "Bobby's Room" and opened the door, slipping inside without a sound.
The moment that he opened the door, a teenage boy that was sitting on the window seat, strumming the strings of a guitar looked up, startled, and his eyes went wide. "Brandon, what are you doing here?" he demanded, setting down the guitar and pulling the shades shut quickly. "If somebody saw you . . ."
"Look, I could really care less about your dad and his stupid demons," Brandon retorted, glaring at him. "Susan's missing, okay? I can't find here anywhere, not even on my radar. Brooke's gone too and as far as I can tell, so are the brothers." Bobby's eyes went wide as he said this. "Now, do you have any idea where I might be able to find them?"
Bobby sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know, there hasn't been any more demon activity here than usual," he replied. "But there's been nothing here on Earth that—"
Brandon looked at him as Bobby stopped talking, a peculiar look crossing his face as Brandon felt exasperation rising through him. "What?" he wanted to know as Bobby slowly sat down, a contemplative look on his face. "What'd you just figure out?"
Looking up at him, Bobby let out a sigh. "Okay, I was out with Patty last night," he replied, "and we both saw a star that was . . . kind of blinking, you know? Like it was fading, then coming back?"
"Like it's dying or something?" Brandon asked, scratching his head. "I don't know much about stars or anything."
"Yeah, me neither. The point is, that I'm not sure it was supposed to be doing that. At least, it's not exactly natural. As far as I know." Bobby sighed as he looked at his feet. "So, maybe that's where they went. If we can figure out what this star is, maybe we can find them."
Brandon nodded, still watching Bobby carefully. "You know, I think I'm actually starting to be glad that Susan found you," he remarked. Bobby grinned faintly before looking down. He sighed. "You know, don't you?"
Bobby shook his head. "Suspected was all," he replied. "If I'd known for sure, maybe I would've said something. Maybe not. Figured you've got your reasons for keeping it from Susan."
"If she figures it out, it's going to be harder for her to move on, live her life without me," Brandon said quietly. "I don't want to cause her any more pain than she's already been through."
"Believe me, I know," Bobby said, glancing towards the door, as though suspecting that his father was standing there, listening. "I know." Looking towards Brandon, he lifted his fist and Brandon grinned as he hit his own fist at Bobby's. "Come on, let's find them."
